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Become a mountain bike guide

We at Ride the Alps have been asked on many occasions for advice and information on becoming a mountain bike guide. This page is to outline, in my opinion, the best path towards achieving that goal. This advice is based on my own experience and what would be required of any aspiring guides who may wish to work for Ride the Alps as a high alpine mountain bike tour guide. Other companies may have different requirements and, more importantly, legal requirements vary between countries. With regards our own trips, the height, exposure and remoteness from road heads means that guiding a Chamonix to Zermatt mountain bikers ‘Haute Route’, requires a greater level of competence and guiding qualifications than does guiding day trips from a centre base in the Alps.

As you will be aware there are UK awards and qualifications at present that will qualify you to be a Mountain Bike guide in the UK, such as the Scottish Mountain Bike Guide Leader Award (SMBLA), the Offroad Training Consultancy Award (OTC). Also in France, Italy and Switzerland they have their own MTBike awards, however currently these awards are only valid for the country they are taken in.
In 2007-08 a precedent has been set for the qualifications required to guide in France by non-holders of the French mountain biking award.. In the summer of 2007 Gareth Jeffries the owner of “Endless Ride” and Sian his chalet hand and assistant guide were arrested in Morzine. He was faced with a large fine of 14,000 euros or 6 months in jail for acting as a mountain bike guide in France with out the French qualifications. Gareth’s arrest was a statement by the French authorities that they are clamping down on the many illegitimate companies based in the Morzine / Les Gets area. Many “guides” or “hosts” from UK companies guides did not and do not have a UK mountain bike guiding award or hold a first aid ticket. However Gareth is actually the most qualified person on the hill as he holds a SMBLA award and first aid qualification, as does Sian. Furthermore, Gareth also has an International Mountain Leader award (IML). (see below on how to get this) After many months of paperwork and deliberation the French authorities accepted that an IML award (which is already has equivalence to the French middle mountain leader award) plus the SMBLA award, are to be considered as legally equivalent to the French mountain bike leader award system. Gareth has therefore been cleared of all charges. It is important to state that the SMBLA award alone is not sufficient to be equivalent to the French year long mountain bike leadership course. It is only the addition only of the IML that fully qualifies an international person to be called an MTBike guide in France. Please bear in mind that Switzerland, Italy and Austria all have alps and all may have different laws.

The French Alps are a very desirable place to work and live in and a fantastic mountain bikers playground. So, no surprise that to work there as a guide is not easy. There are many strict laws that mountain guides have to work to. This is true across the board for any mountain activity, be it skiing, rock climbing, mountaineering, hill walking and mountain biking. The French have awards for guides/instructors for all these sports at all different levels, as do neighboring European countries, including Italy, Austria and Switzerland. If you want to work for free then there are few laws which govern you, and there is no law stopping you from doing these activities yourself or with your mates. Just apply a bit of common sense and experience before whipping up Mont Blanc though.

So what qualification do you need and how can you get them?

If you want to cross a high mountain pass in the UK, not normally covered in snow in summer, with a group of walkers you need a Summer Mountain Walking Leadership (ML) award. To guide the same walkers over a pass in the Alps (and world wide) in summer, so long as you are not crossing ice, steep rock or a glacier etc, you need an International Mountain Leaders (IML) Award. If you happen to have mountain bikes with you then you need another piece of paper which qualifies you as a mountain bike leader as well as your ML (UK) or IML (rest of world). It’s a belt and braces approach, but it satisfies the law and makes insurance possible for the activity that you are being paid to lead.

Getting the IML Award will take several years to build up the necessary experience and involves a lot of leading of walking groups. It’s best to read through the information from one of the best providers of mountain training, see http://www.pyb.co.uk/courses/mountain-quals.php . You first need to have a Summer ML award then, proceed to the IML which has both winter and summer training and assessment elements to it. It can take a minimum of 5 years to pass all these different criteria, that’s if you have the time to do it as well as the money and experience and skills it requires and needs.

For the mountain bike leader qualification in the UK there are presently two main providers of leadership courses with centres all over the UK that run them. The syllabus and provider that is most in favour and holds slightly more weight is the Scottish Mountain Biker Leader Award, (SMBLA) www.scuonline.org. SMBLA has two awards, Trail Cycle Leader and Mountain Bike Leader, plus an expedition award extension. You need to get at least the mountain bike leader. A good provider in England for this course is Cycle Wise, see their website http://www.cyclewisetraining.co.uk. In Scotland the best provider and well worth the journey up there for Northern Brits is Cycle Wild Scotland http://www.cyclewildscotland.co.uk. This is run by Jules Fincham - a good friend of Ride the Alps! The other UK based award is the OTC award designed by Dan Cook, see www.otc.org.uk. You need to achieve at least the old level 3, now Advanced Mountain Bike Leader award. Both the OTC and SMBLA are stand alone awards for the UK only and on their own do not allow you to legally work in Europe or internationally. At present, they don’t have European equivalence, which is what the IML award has for walking, and so at the moment that’s why you need to have both a biking leadership and a mountain leadership award. Plus for all these awards to be valid you need to hold a current First Aid qualification as well.

Finally, you need the 3 Es; experience, expertise and enthusiasm. That means you have to be a very experienced rider in all areas of mountain biking; ascents, descents, good technical ability and mechanical knowledge. You need expertise in leadership on a mountain bike including group management and organisation, delivered in a relaxed manner and a fun safe way. Following all the hard work and effort it takes to get this far, you need to have with you on every trip and day ride a bucket full of enthusiasm to make the trip a fantastic one, even when its raining and no one wants to go up the hill and get wet. You have to lead in a way that makes others want to follow. You have to get them up, over and down safely and have a lot of fun on the way. It’s about making a lot of happy memories for people, the harder the day, often, the longer it sticks in your mind.

This is what I would require from a guide wanting to work for Ride the Alps. It’s what I have, see Jamie’s bit on the ‘About’, ‘Guides’ section of this website. Before you embark on all this it’s worth mentioning that although I have been through all of these qualifications and more, I still don’t earn very much money doing it all, but I love it, and that’s what counts! After 17 years of guiding I still live for the next biking season so I can do it all again. You don’t become a mountain bike guide for the money, you do it for the love of it. Make sure you have a very cheap life style, some good sponsors or an alternative source of income if you intend to do it in the long term. However if you make it, you will truly be a worldly wise guide, have plenty of stories to tell and be a richer person for it.

Good luck and my best wishes.
Jamie Carr.

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